Crafting chairs the old-fashioned way

Former executive has carved out a new career by meticulously making Windsor chairs

May 14, 2004|By Katie Thomas, Tribune Newspapers: Newsday.

The log that lies in Tom McCormick's side yard still looks like a tree. Covered in mossy bark, the red oak is more than a foot thick and weighs about 800 pounds--so heavy and unwieldy that it was delivered to McCormick's Quogue, N.Y., home on the back of a flatbed truck.

But in just weeks, this great hunk of wood will be hacked, steamed, carved, whittled, sanded and painted until it's a refined reproduction of a centuries-old Windsor chair. When finished, spindles no thicker than a woman's thumb will line its back, and its seat won't easily accommodate anyone more than 200 pounds.

With their elegant yet simple design, Windsor chairs have been staples in American homes for centuries. The style--characterized by a many-spoked back and tapered legs--is so ubiquitous that mass-produced versions can be found in nearly every national chain store.

But the difference between those chairs and the ones McCormick brings to life in his basement is a bit like the difference between powdered ice tea and the home-brewed real thing. With few exceptions, McCormick shuns power tools and other modern conveniences, choosing instead to use only tools and techniques used by his counterparts in the 18th and 19th Centuries, when Windsor chairmaking was at its peak. His process is so meticulous and time-consuming that he makes only about 30 chairs a year.

Though McCormick said he's always been a "putterer," the 65-year-old had little use for the skill during most of his career as an executive on Wall Street. Then, about five years ago, McCormick became interested in chairmaking after fixing a set of straight-backed kitchen chairs that had belonged to his grandmother.

That year, for Valentine's Day, McCormick's wife treated him to a beginners class with Mike Dunbar, considered a guru in the art of handmade Windsor chairs.

After two weeks of intensive training at Dunbar's workshop in New Hampshire, McCormick knew chairmaking was to become more than a hobby. "I was hooked," he said.

Before learning how to make them himself, McCormick had long admired Windsor chairs in the antiques shops and magazines he browsed. With their spindled backs, the chairs look good from almost any angle. Their simple design means they can fit easily into most decors.

"The chair is very attractive. It occupies the space very nicely," McCormick said. "I just was really intrigued by it."

Although no one knows for certain where the name came from, McCormick said most historians believe the chairs originated in Windsor, England, before arriving in the United States in the 1700s with English settlers. Once here, a cottage industry of Windsor chairmakers blossomed, and the chairs became a staple in early American homes and institutions. In a famous painting of the signing of the Declaration of Independence by Robert Edge Pine, for example, the signers are seen sitting in traditional "sack-back" Windsors.

The lasting popularity of the chairs can perhaps be attributed to their durability. No matter how well-crafted, most other wooden chairs eventually fall apart because the wood that forms the back legs also serves as the chair's back. But Windsor chairs are different. Because their legs are wedged at an angle into holes made underneath the seat, the act of sitting in them spreads the weight across the chair.

Windsors are also more comfortable than other wooden chairs. While the back is made of hefty wood such as red oak and the legs out of maple, the seats are traditionally made of softer pine and are carved into contours.

In addition to styles he learned at Dunbar's workshop, McCormick has crafted his own reproductions using old photos of Windsor chairs in two historical books he keeps.

Once he's drawn up his plans, he heads outside to tackle the giant log. After he's "whacked" it into more manageable pieces, he carves them into smaller parts using chairmaking tools that have changed little since the 18th Century. "When you use the traditional methods, the integrity and authenticity of the chair just comes out," said McCormick.

There are some exceptions to his rules. Some of the pieces, such as the curving strip of oak that supports the back spindles are placed first in a steamer made of modern PVC-piping.

McCormick's other nod to the 20th Century is the motor-driven lathe that he uses to fashion the spindles, legs and spreaders. In the old days, he said, lathes were powered by young boys who would pedal on a bicycle-like contraption to make the lathe go.

When asked to discuss prices, McCormick is coy, explaining that he likes to show potential customers around before he'll talk numbers. Chairs of the quality he makes often start around $450 for the simplest "sack-back" version, he said, and can go up to $1,200 for the more stately "Philadelphia high-backs."

Five years after he made his first chair, McCormick said he is still surprised each time he finishes one. Once he has hand-carved the details, fitted each leg snugly in its groove and covered the whole thing in three coats of paint, "I step back and say, `Wow, how did I do that?'"